George Clooney Cuffed at Sudanese Embassy Protest

Posted on Mar 16, 2012

AP / Cliff Owen

Actor George Clooney, center, and Rep. Jim Moran, left, are led to a police vehicle after being arrested during a protest at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Friday.

Can’t say the guy doesn’t have range. On Friday, George Clooney put his actor/director/good-time-guy persona aside to get serious about what he warned could become a catastrophe of global proportions, the crisis in Sudan, and he went so far as to get arrested in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., to make his point. —KA

Entertainment on “Today”:

Clooney’s father, journalist Nick Clooney, 78, was with him and was also arrested, as were Martin Luther King III, NAACP President Ben Jealous, comedian and activist Dick Gregory, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), Rep. John Olver (D-Mass.), Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) and former Rep. Tom Andrews (D-Mass.). The group was restrained with plastic handcuffs and taken away by police.

Speaking before the large crowd that gathered to watch the protest, Clooney said, “We need immediate humanitarian aid into Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”

He went on to say that the group wanted “the (Sudanese) government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them, and stop starving them.”

GEN. WESLEY CLARK: I knew why, because I had been through the
Pentagon right after 9/11. About ten days after 9/11, I went through the
Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I
went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff
who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in.

He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.” I said,
“Well, you’re too busy.” He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the
decision we’re going to war with Iraq.” This was on or about the 20th of
September. I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?” He said, “I don’t
know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.” So I said,
“Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?”
He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just
made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we
don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and
we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool
you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”

So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were
bombing in Afghanistan. I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?” And
he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.”

He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said,
“I just got this down from upstairs”—meaning the Secretary of
Defense’s office—“today.”

And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out
seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon,
Libya, Somalia, SUDAN and, finishing off, Iran.”

I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.” I said, “Well, don’t show it to
me.” And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, “You remember that?” He
said, “Sir, I didn’t show you that memo! I didn’t show it to you!”

People in late stage starvation are more striking visually, than black guys shuffling around the 9th ward in New Orleans. Enjoy poverty its a growth industry. Actors and actressess love to mug for popular causes.

Imax The worst humanitarian crisis on the planet is whats happening in the U.S. which if things become bad enough could destroy the planet with nukes. Whats happening in Sudan has no real effect on the rest of us. A couple of million people are starving to death , in the greater scheme of things a large die off of humans is probably a net positive.

You’re not paying attention. LOL. As I said, you don’t know that he is NOT doing things to help American children, etc. Just because it has not appeared in the news does not mean he is not actively involved in other projects as well. Stop making presumptions about people…

What the hell is is Mr. clooney doing. Why doesn’t he help American children who living hand to mouth all over the U.S. Bad or little food no health care no homes [foreclosed] schools where armed guards chase down and kill students for smoking a joint. Kids graduating who can’t read. Let Africans deal with their own problems. Guys like him and sean penn seem to have lost their way morally. Giving back should start in your own country. If they did take an effective stand on U.S. issues maybe they would be unable to work in the U.S. Maybe thats the reason?

Not all of us know buy this is propaganda using stars to make it more credible.
I am sure he was very well taught by experts, before commit his fame to the “right causes”.
And the sheeple buy it. They have done it before.
This will bring more college students to the cause. You will see them rally for “humanitaire intervention”.
After seeing this I figured I was fooled when Bono uused to talk about Africa and it many problems… back when I believed any of this shit. Cause back then I thought the guy was right and had other humans in mind.
All Tavistock shit.
Berneys, John D. Rockfeler and company are burning in hell.

“China has a $20 billion oil infrastructure in the Sudan. They get 6% of their oil imported from the Sudan. And the South Sudan has the oil and North Sudan has the refineries, and North Sudan was taking that money from the oil and not giving it back and buying weapons to hurt the South. So about six weeks ago, the South said, ‘OK, we’re done.’ And they shut off the oil. So China suddenly is getting no return on their money. That gives us a unique position, as opposed to looking to them as humanitarians or to do the right thing, we can meet with China - not we, but a high-level government official - could meet with China and say ‘Let’s work on this together, because we both, economically, would benefit by a resolution, a cross-border resolution.’ Right now, our gas prices go up as the president said in his press conference because when the Chinese aren’t getting their 6% from the Sudan, they’re getting it from somewhere else and that raises the price for all of us. So it’s something that’s mutually beneficial.”

To everyone who is bad-mouthing Clooney, a couple of comments. First, I don’t see YOU out there protesting ANYTHING; I see you living your lives online, raking muck on TD. Second, how do you know what Clooney did or did not do re other crises and situations? In fact, he has been among the most actively activist celebs for quite some time - and a damn smart one, too.

Get rid of your petty jealousy and ad hominem attacks, and address the actual situation - which Clooney is apparently doing, while you simply intellectualize (sometimes poorly) about it.

Here we have another so-called “humanitarian crisis” aided and abetted by the CIA and NATO through arms provided to rebel forces. This a typical U.S. precursor to “regime change” in order to make yet another resource grab and to outflank the Chinese, who originally had decent economic relations with Sudan with respect to their oil resources. Nothing like another created crisis to send the big daddy US to save another country destabilized by the very same. I’m surprised I haven’t heard the buzzword “genocide” come from Clooney’s maw again. Stick with acting George, let the robber barons do their own scummy work without Hollywood assistance.

A different slant. Seems that many of these places are practicing a typical
ruthless and ancient culling. Playing a powerful deity by intervening in this
dioramic slaughter should come with conditions. “Hey, I just most likely saved
your life and made it possible for you to live much longer- please reciprocate and
limit your offspring to two. Without that condition it seems guaranteed that the
cycle of continued slaughter over finite resources will never end.

Clooney is another celebrity gasbag protesting what’s safe to protest, you’ll never see him speak out against the Israeli occupation or attacks on Gaza, crimes the US is directly involved in and funding.

Clooney, his father, and others by lending his presence to this cause will push it into national attention. The “government killing its own people” mania is active there, too, and sadly. In this case, it seems China is selling the government 80% or so of the weapons used, with Russia straggling along behind. The dirty worldwide arms business is thriving at huge human cost.